"Attached" Chronology Question: When did Beverly meet Picard?

[JonnyQuest037]

So while working on my ST Timeline tonight, I came across this dialogue from the 7th season episode "Attached", while Picard and Beverly are mentally linked:

CRUSHER: I remember when Jack and I took Wesley on his first camping trip to Balfour Lake. Wesley kept throwing manta leaves in the fire, watching them pop. Jack kept telling him-- What? Jean-Luc, I heard you. Don't push it away. When I said Jack and I, I felt this sudden wave of something. I didn't know you felt that way.
PICARD: Didn't you?
CRUSHER: I guess I always knew that there was an attraction between us right from the start, but I never knew how strongly you felt. Why didn't you ever tell me you were in love with me?
PICARD: You were married to my best friend. At first I thought it was harmless infatuation. Something hormonal rather than emotional.
CRUSHER: Then when the months went by and the three of us began spending more time together...
PICARD: I realized that it was something else, and it wasn't right. But although I would never act on it, I couldn't help the way I felt.
CRUSHER: And when Jack died you felt guilty.
PICARD: I felt guilty before he died. Having feelings like that for my best friend's wife. And then later, after the accident, I promised myself that I would never tell you know how I felt. It would be like betraying my friend
CRUSHER: That's why you didn't want me on the Enterprise seven years ago.
PICARD: I didn't know how I would react. And then, little by little, I realized that I didn't have those feelings any more. Twenty years is, after all, a long time.
CRUSHER: And now we're friends.
PICARD: Yes, friends.

So that reads to me like Picard is saying that he's known Beverly for 20 years by that point (2370) and that she was already married to Jack Crusher when they met. Therefore, Picard met her sometime around 2350, after Beverly married Jack in 2348. However, the Okuda Chronology sets their first meeting 20 years before TNG's first season, in 2344. Does that seem right to anyone else? Are there any other TNG episodes that explicitly say how long Picard and Dr. Crusher have known each other?

 

[Tosk]

IMO, it's pretty clear from the dialogue that Picard did not meet Beverly until after she and Jack were married.

 

[Ensign Vanessa Crusher]

I'm not really sure...
Its actually a really good question.

 

[Finn]

However, that conflicts with that conversation Picard had in Conspiracy. Picard said he hadn’t met Beverly when Jack met her, suggesting he already met Jack, and met her not long after.

Was the writers of Attached even around when they did Conspiracy?

 

[danellis]

I could've sworn that Picard introduced Jack and Beverley to each other.

dJE

 

[Timo]

That was the trick question in "Conspiracy": Walker Keel was the one who introduced Jack and Bev to each other, but he claimed that Picard had done that, in an attempt to prove Picard was an impostor.

Since we later learn that Keel most probably wasn't an impostor himself, and since Picard emphatically denies having been the one to introduce the couple, and since Picard says he didn't even know Bev back then... Well, we really don't have a reason to doubt that version of the events. And it seems to be in line with "Attached", too, just with more emphasis on Jack and Bev becoming an item without Jean-Luc being aware of it until... Well, until an arbitrary timepoint. Picard laments Mrs Crusher was Mrs Crusher, because that kept her from being a prospect - but this doesn't mean Picard wouldn't already have known Ms Howard, already destined for said marriage. Jean-Luc's agony simply consisted mostly of the Mrs Crusher part, not the Ms Howard part.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Was the writers of Attached even around when they did Conspiracy?

Considering the turnover that the TNG writing staff had in the first two seasons, I don't think so.

I could've sworn that Picard introduced Jack and Beverley to each other.

No, that was Captain Walker Keel, one of the other characters in "Conspiracy."

 

[Tenacity]

^ In Conspiracy Picard directly stated that he didn't introduce them. More likely it was Jack who introduced Picard and Beverly to each other.

Picard might have been friends with jack, before jack met Beverly. However jack married Beverly, before Picard had a chance to meet her.

Service in Starfleet might separate close friends for years at a time.

 

[danellis]

Considering the turnover that the TNG writing staff had in the first two seasons, I don't think so.

No, that was Captain Walker Keel, one of the other characters in "Conspiracy."

I stand corrected, thank you.

dJE

 

[JonnyQuest037]

^ In Conspiracy Picard directly stated that he didn't introduce them. More likely it was Jack who introduced Picard and Beverly to each other.

Picard might have been friends with jack, before jack met Beverly. However jack married Beverly, before Picard had a chance to meet her.

Service in Starfleet might separate close friends for years at a time.

Yes, this strikes me as the most plausible explanation. I know for the TOS section of my timeline, I have Kirk meeting and befriending both McCoy and Gary Mitchell before they each start serving on different assignments for a few years.

 

[Farscape One]

Was the writers of Attached even around when they did Conspiracy?

None of the writers from that era made it to season 7.

In fact, Rick Berman was the only main person left from those days that was still around.

 

[Mike McDevitt]

Peter David's IDW Comic "20/20" depicts JL and Bev's meeting, and most closely fits the 2344 date. The tale also has Captain Picard officiate Jack and Bev's wedding shortly afterward.

 

[Trekker4747]

It's funny how literal people can take lines in shows. Picard in S7 says "20 years" and this conflicts with "20 years" being said in an earlier season.

Know what? When giving times and dates things quickly get cloudy the older you get to the point where 27 years ago is the same as 20 years ago. I still get stunned when it hits me its 2020 and things I swear "just happened" were over a decade ago, but I think of it as a "few years."

20 years ago = 27 years ago when you're older.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

It's funny how literal people can take lines in shows.

No, I certainly get that. People tend to speak colloquially all the time. If say that something happened 20 years ago, I could just as easily be talking about something that happened in 1998 or 2003 as something that happened in the year 2000.

Picard in S7 says "20 years" and this conflicts with "20 years" being said in an earlier season.

Do you recall in which other episode Picard said that he knew Beverly for 20 years? It can be tough to track down these references with Star Trek Script Search still being down.